Few shoppers, fewer hours for employees

No layoffs, but Market Basket part-timers will feel the pain

"This is my source of income. My bills won't be paid," said Rashida Williams, 21, who works 15-25 hours a week at Market Basket on Water Street in Fitchburg.
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FITCHBURG -- Market Basket's new CEOs say they are not laying off workers, but that store directors have been told to adjust workers' hours to meet current demand, and that the company hopes to get back to normal business levels soon.

Company co-CEO Felicia Thornton said in a statement Thursday that store directors "are to let their associates know that they are not laid off."

The statement came after attorneys general in Massachusetts and New Hampshire said they received a surge in calls from workers at Market Basket.

A loss of hours at work would be devastating, said Kim Proietti, of Leominster, who has worked at the Market Basket on Water Street in Fitchburg for about three years.

"It hurts. I put so much time in the company. Now they can tell management not to give us our hours," said Kim Proietti, 19, who works part time at the Market Basket store on Water Street in Fitchburg.
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The Fitchburg State University student relies on her paycheck as a part-timer to help with college costs and car payments.

"We saw it coming from day one," said Proietti, whose mother, Peggy Proietti, has worked full time for the grocery chain for 35 years. "It hurts. I put so much time in the company. Now they can tell management not to give us our hours."

Water Street Market Basket Manager John Sevastis isn't calling it a layoff, but, as of Sunday, none of his 285 part-time employees will be scheduled to work.

"In a store like this, where we have 35 full-timers, unfortunately, with the amount of business we do, I can only use the full-timers," Sevastis said Thursday morning. "I can't use the part-timers.

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The store is responsible for paying its employees through revenues it generates rather than through corporate offices, he said.

The number of customers walking into the store is down 71-percent compared to the same time a year ago, and sales volume is down 90 percent, Sevastis added.

"If the customers don't shop in our stores, we can't get the money to keep the employees working," he said.

John Sevastis, manager of the Market Basket on Water Street in Fitchburg, gets a cold shower from Assistant Store Director Jim St. Cyr, left, and Clerk Eric Peters as part of the "ice bucket challenge" outside the store Thursday. He donated $10 to ALS research and another $10 for Market Basket truckers and warehouse workers.
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Sentinel and Enterprise staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.

The directive to cut hours for employees was handed down from the corporate office last week, so part-timers who were already on the schedule are filling their shifts this week. They are cleaning, painting and generally trying to look busy.

Rashida Williams usually works 15-25 hours a week as the assistant manager for the checkout registers.

The job helps her with car insurance, her cell phone bill, her credit card payments and her gym membership.

Williams is a full-time student at Fitchburg State, majoring in human services, and the potential loss of income hit her hard because she thought there would be a resolution by now.

"Honestly, when I found out I was very teary-eyed," Williams said. "I didn't think it would get to this point because of the effort we put in."

Eric Therrien is a part-timer but has worked about 32 hours per week for the last 5 1/2 years. The job helps him pay his student loans, phone bill and rent.

"It's definitely stressful," he said. "I'm really confused, obviously, not sure what to do next."

The longevity of full-time employees and customer support for the workers is the strength behind workers' objections to Arthur T. Demoulas' ouster as president and CEO, Sevastis said.

"It's getting bigger than Arthur T. Demoulas now," he said. "It's the community against corporate greed."

The average tenure for store directors is 32 years at Market Basket. Sevastis has 37 years with the company, including time spent at the Leominster store, at the John Fitch Highway store in Fitchburg and now the Water Street store.

They are risking their careers in support of Demoulas.

"This is who we are. It's all about family," Sevastis said.

Employees at the Water Street store participated in an "ice bucket challenge" on the sidewalk outside the store at noon Thursday.

The idea is simple: Take a bucket of ice water, dump it over your head, record it and post the video on social media. The fundraising phenomenon asks those willing to douse themselves to challenge others to do the same within 24 hours. If they don't, they must make a donation to a charity.

The donations were to be given to the company truck drivers and warehouse workers who've been out of work three weeks. There are 68 truckers and about 300 selectors who have lost their paychecks.

The months-old "ice bucket challenge" movement has taken the Boston area by storm over the last 10 days, since friends and family of former Boston College baseball player Pete Frates used it to raise awareness about Lou Gehrig's disease. Frates was diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease, also known as ALS, in 2012. Frates, 29, is now paralyzed, eats through a feeding tube and cannot talk.

Sevastis was the first Market Basket employee to get iced on Thursday. He donated $10 to ALS research and another $10 for the truckers and warehouse workers.

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